A SIX-YEAR-OLD'S concern for the poor prompted a letter to be written to the Prime Minister requesting more food be given to foodbanks when she heard people in Cornwall rely on them to eat.

Rhisiart Tal-e-bot, a member of the Celtic League, was asked by his daughter Olwen to write to David Cameron to see what the Government planned to do to help people who cannot afford to eat.

The letter came after MPs decided not to pursue part of a Labour Party proposal to investigate why foodbanks were being relied upon.

Mr Tal-e-bot said he felt compelled to help write the letter after attempting to explain to Olwen why people use foodbanks.

He said she became frustrated and wanted to ask the Prime Minister what he was prepared to do to help those who could not afford to buy food in Camborne and Redruth.

Mr Tal-e-bot wrote: "Whenever I go out with my daughter in the community, we are regularly confronted with foodbank collection points in places as diverse as Barclays Bank and the local college.

"Initially my daughter wanted to donate food at each collection point we came across, but now seems to have become a little desensitised to the issue, because, I suppose, the need is now so prevalent and evident in our everyday lives and even includes some people who we know having to use the local foodbank.

"The manager of the Camborne Foodbank explained that in a two-hour period last week 1,900 meals were given out (a figure that amounts to over 9 per cent of the population of our town)."

It is the second time in two years that Mr Tal-e-bot has written to Mr Cameron on behalf of his daughter to highlight the issues surrounding foodbanks. Neither received a response from the office of the Prime Minister.